Monthly Archives: Srpen 2016

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We previously tested a very early build of Brave to see what kind of performance the new browser was packing. The thing is, that build wasn’t feature-complete or optimized for release. Now that it’s out in the wild (users are still waiting on the promised Bitcoin-centric features mind you) with all of its bells and whistles we thought we’d revisit our initial tests, and cast a wider net to give you a good metric for Brave’s real-world performance as it stands.

Is it as fast as it was before release? Is the responsiveness a nice bonus to their browsing experience, or is it just placebo compounded by novelty? We’ve rounded up six modern browsers, including a peek at the still-in-infancy Mozilla Servo, and tested them rigorously in an attempt to answer these questions.

Brave Benchmark Data

Each Browser is the latest version available, stock standard with no customization whatsoever, with the exception of Firefox, which is heavily extended and in use as my daily driver. I included it in testing to give a baseline for performance after long-term use and customization.

These are the normalized scores for each benchmark we ran. It’s hard to see a clear performance champ, but Brave initially looks healthy. Note that Vivaldi, Chromium and Brave are all based on Chrome, so we can reasonably expect them to perform similarly, though Brave is anecdotally supposed to be more performant. Speedometer seems heavily skewed towards Chrome optimization as well:

Here we see memory consumption with a large amount of tabs open. Brave consumes the second highest amount of memory out of all the browsers tested. Something to consider, as it may not run as well on systems with less than 8GB of RAM:

Interesting side note: I attempted to benchmark a release optimized build of Servo to see how far the project had progressed, and I very quickly got my answer — not very. The only thing I could get to run was Mozilla’s Dromaeo JS suite, which puts Servo’s performance at a little below a customized Firefox:

Here are the Peacekeeper Platform-Neutral Benchmark scores, relative to Brave’s performance. The picture starts to get a little clearer here:

And the aggregate normalized scores from every benchmark used in our tests:

Benchmark Conclusions and Recommendations

Brave is disappointingly slow, performing the worst out of the box, and only beating my extended and abused installation of Firefox. It even underperforms the aggregate average that includes Firefox as a negative outlier.

It also comes in second to last on system resources, and given the lack of promised bitcoin integration and the abysmal privacy situation hidden under a veneer of ad-blocking, I see little to no reason to use this new browser. It might be an upgrade if you’re moving from Internet Explorer or Safari, (or a really dirty install of Firefox) but the UX feels like a portal into the mid-2000’s, and any performance increase you’ll feel is an almost guaranteed placebo.

If you want a pretty, clean, user experience, try out Vivaldi. It performs similarly, and there’s a lot of thought put into the UX. Need privacy or just hate web advertising? Install a few add-ons in Chromium or Firefox.

Want to get paid BTC to view ads? Try getting in early on an MLM scheme, because there’s no word on when that’ll be coming to mainline Brave. Given time, and assuming the devs make good on all proposed features, this browser may become attractive, if not blazing fast. Until then, stick with what you’ve got, or try one of the other perfectly serviceable browsers represented in the benchmarks.

Questions about the browsers covered here? Leave them in the comments!

Technical Analysis: Bitcoin Price Still Looking Upwards

Long-Term Analysis

Aside from the market determined by the biggest traders, which can be seen through volume indicators during the previous two sideways lateral movements, natural demand supremacy allows prices to leave the $580-$600 support area.

Now, the new technical objective is the $820 level without intermediate resistances, in a bull pattern that could be a fast rally to place the quotes into a new formation that would drive the action even higher.

Mid-Term Analysis

Mathematical indicators suggest that buying activity and prices are going up across the Fibonacci fan lines that every trader is considering right now to place their profit objectives, stops and hedge orders.

Taking this data into consideration through the lens of Contrary Opinion Theory, the present stage could be a rally move to $820, from where another lateral market would consolidate the new cycle with new all time objectives over $1200.

Short-Term Analysis

Japanese Candlestick analysis shows that prices are ready to go across the theoretical trading box to the resistance at $820, perhaps in a rally mode.

The first resistance level could be calculated at $700 because of last month’s congestion, which sent prices to the current figures that mark the start of a new bull cycle. However, signals at oscillators are strong enough to dismiss every intermediate level and the entire trading box, which could be considered over as well.

Staff Opinion: Although the recent Bitfinex hack has shaken up markets, leaving the bitcoin price down longer than we expected, we strongly suspect that the price is preparing for another upward launch, indicated by the technical analysis provided in this article. When this rally will take place, though, will be determined through a balance of stabilized fundamentals and optimistic technical signs.

– Evan Faggart, Senior Editor

What do you think will happen to the bitcoin price? Let us know in the comments below!

India has expanded their draconian internet copyright and media enforcement policies from DNS filtering banned IPs, to enforcing those bans with up to 3 years jail time and up to a $4500 USD fine for attempting to visit a blocked site. Said enforcement is facilitated with assistance from Indian ISPs

India Lets John Doe Go Too Far

Many sites are blocked in India at the request of the Bollywood media industry and other legal entities. They do so via a legal avenue known as a ‘John Doe order:’ an injunction that recommends action as a prophylactic against the possibility of a crime taking place, or in instances of crimes perpetrated by anonymous actors. In effect, John Doe orders have given the Media Industry carte-blanche to order a site be blocked in India, and now people attempting to visit those sites risk serious legal repercussions. Mind you; not just pirates fall under this legal umbrella. Simply visiting a site with content deemed undesirable by the aabove John Doe orders will make you a criminal. Try visiting one of the many blocked sites in India, and it will return:

An ISP Complicit with new Indian enforcement

“This URL has been blocked under the instructions of the Competent Government Authority or in compliance with the orders of a Court of competent jurisdiction. Viewing, downloading, exhibiting or duplicating an illicit copy of the contents under this URL is punishable as an offence under the laws of India, including but not limited to under Sections 63, 63-A, 65 and 65-A of the Copyright Act, 1957 which prescribe imprisonment for 3 years and also fine of upto Rs. 3,00,000/-. Any person aggrieved by any such blocking of this URL may contact at urlblock@tatacommunications.com who will, within 48 hours, provide you the details of relevant proceedings under which you can approach the relevant High Court or Authority for redressal of your grievance”

Tata Communications is an Indian ISP, indicating that there is deeper cooperation taking place than the previous Government DNS filtering efforts. This increased level of cooperation aligns itself with increased Indian copyright enforcement efforts. Given that this message may be and is fairly often returned when no infringing content is hosted on a site, and that it blocks engine-searchable media like images and news outlets based on Lists Compiled from Indian media industry John Doe orders, it places an unenforceable amount of people in legal jeopardy.

While doubtful this is a move towards China-Style internet censorship in India, It highlights just how far reaching their current system is. While this censorship stems from a legal loophole that circumvents due process, interests align such that it will likely continue, and just because it criminalizes the ostensibly legal internet habits of an incredibly large amount of Indian Citizens, putting enforcement of this new policy well outside the realm of practicality, does not mean examples will not be made.

Want to discuss internet freedom on the sub-continent? Start one in the comments!

Popular bitcoin gaming site mBit Casino has launched a new VIP program that rewards players for continued activity on the gaming platform.

Disclaimer: This article was provided by Bitcoin PR Buzz. Bitcoinist is not affiliated with the firms represented by Bitcoin PR Buzz and is not responsible for their products and/or services.

Casino representative Linda Murphy says that “this new VIP bitcoin casino player reward program was built with sizable input from existing affiliates and players alike.”

“After many months of development,” she continues, “we are proud to announce that the VIP operation is fully active.”

This VIP program gives loyalty points and other rewards to players as they spend time on mBit Casino. The goal of these rewards is to make “each player feel special,” says the casino.

In addition to loyalty points and rewards, the VIP program has a multi-tiered rewards system that gives perks to players based on how many points they earn. Customers with “mBit Black.” status, the highest rewards tier, get a 1 bitcoin top-up on the casino’s bankroll.

The other tiers are “Silver,” Gold,” and “Diamond,” each with their own set of rewards.

Launched in 2014, mBit Casino has worked to provide a quality gaming experience for bitcoin gamblers.

“With Bitcoin,” the casino says, “it is now possible for the gambling platforms to offer instant withdrawal options to their users so they can receive immediate payouts.”

Instant withdrawals, among other unique features, “wouldn’t have been possible with outdated conventional fiat payments technologies,” according to mBit.

About mBit Casino

mBit Casino is one of the leading online Bitcoin casino operators in the world. Operated by Softswiss N.V., the platform is registered under the laws of Curacao. The casino platform offers a wide range of games for its users. Recently mBit Casino has introduced an attractive rewards program.

Lisk, the highly-publicized blockchain application development platform, has launched Lisk Nano. This product is a lightweight client that allows users to access their accounts on any device without having to synchronize with the blockchain.

Disclaimer: This article was provided by Bitcoin PR Buzz. Bitcoinist is not affiliated with the firms represented by Bitcoin PR Buzz and is not responsible for their products and/or services.

Nano: Access Your Projects on the Go

Since this “Nano” client removes the requirement to sync with the blockchain, the full functionality of the regular client will not be available. However, the Nano client allows users to access the basic tools of the platform, enabling them to do essential work on the go.

The Nano client can be used for creating Lisk accounts, as well as sending, receiving and viewing LSK transactions. Nano 0.1.0 is compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux.

The Lisk platform launched in early 2016, bringing in a large amount of funding and excitement from the cryptocurrency community. This project aims to provide a Java-based blockchain app development environment that can be used by developers from all backgrounds, eliminating the need to learn new, blockchain-specific coding languages.

To date, according to the project’s website, there have been over 14,000 bitcoins worth of LSK exchanged, with close to 4,000 people participating on the platform.

The project’s website features five blockchain applications developed on the platform, their services ranging from ecommerce to “proof of existence.”

About Lisk

This project is a blockchain application platform that offers JavaScript development tools to deploy sidechains and build decentralized applications on top of them. It comes with the ability to connect various different (decentralized) technologies to enable developers to build useful applications for the real world. Lisk was started earlier this year by Max Kordek and Oliver Beddows.

Ripple Exec Cites Failures of Social Consensus Model

The blockchain industry, he writes, foresees a blockchain revolution across a swathe of industries like finance, international trade and health care. However, Thomas pens, “blockchains are a pain to work with.”

“Harmony and consensus are valuable. But harmony taken to the extreme becomes a detriment,” he continues. “In the Lego Movie utopia, ‘everything is awesome’ only on the surface. Behind the scenes, there is tremendous diversity and a rapidly changing world, which doesn’t match the established consensus.” A picture of the authoritarian President Business from The Lego Movie graces the essay, implying that — like the movie — everything about blockchain technology is not as rosy as it seems.

Thomas also evokes the Bitcoin block size debate when writing about the difficulties of blockchain technology. With issues like network scalability, Thomas says the blockchain’s social consensus model represents an obstacle.

Despite his less-than-positive words, Thomas is still a Bitcoin proponent, running the website weusecoins.com — “a single resource” where the currency is “explained for the average non-technical user.”

The budding blockchain technology industry has received nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in funding so far this year. The largest technology companies (think IBM, Microsoft), and the largest financial institutions in the world (your bank) are investing in research and development for Bitcoin technology.

The foundation for their experimentation is Ethereum, but their technology will likely pair together new distributed ledger technologies for a secure and more efficient end-result. Distributed ledger and blockchain technology is designed to do one thing: track payments, back office processes, securities and derivatives, health records – everything.

But, as Thomas’ essay poses, what if there is a darker side to blockchain technology? Thomas suggests issues in growing the technology.

In particular, experimentation and improvements to the software are hampered in a blockchain system because a majority of miners who run the software must agree to deploy the update before it can be rolled out.

“The fact that one corner of the system can be updated and good ideas can eventually spread to the system as a whole has been essential for the Web’s ability to keep pace with technological innovation,” he said.

“In a blockchain like Ethereum’s, everyone has to think the same,” he said, suggesting that differing opinions can lead to developmental gridlock — something that has been an issue in the Bitcoin community for a few years.

Thomas concludes his essay with a plug for Ripple’s Interledger Protocol, describing it as a more flexible and individualized way to send or receive payments. Because of this added choice, “crucially,” he said, “our thoughts can be — once again — our own.”

Ripple has fallen out of the crypto-spotlight in recent years, after internal strife gave rise to a community-wide scandal in 2014 that tarnished the project’s reputation.

Thomas is perhaps best known for his “What is Bitcoin?” video on YouTube, which has been viewed more than 6.8 million times.

What do you think about Thomas’ essay? Let us know in the comments below!

New Malware Targeting Mac Users

Bitcoinists who use Macs ought to be especially concerned, as the malware specifically targets Mac users by mimicking an anti-malware tool designed for Macs. Malware can be used to steal private keys and wallet passwords, allowing malicious actors to gain access to your funds.

The malware was discovered first by Thomas Reed, lead researcher at anti-malware firm, MalwareBytes. Its method of infection is very simple: it tricks people into visiting its website and downloading the program. This sounds like your normal phishing tactic, but the program itself does not act like normal malware once installed.

In fact, once the malware is installed, the user wouldn’t even know that anything was wrong at first. However, if one were to look deeper, they would discover a file within the software claiming ownership of different kinds of file types. Additionally, If you were to open these files, they would display that you needed new, specialized software in order to view them.

This is troubling because it looks like a normal technical problem, as the error message that appears is the same as the one that would regularly appear when trying to open an unknown file type — making it difficult for users to even realize there is something suspicious happening.

If users fall for that, then they will be led to a site that begins downloading a bunch of other useless software, like Mac Adware Remover and Mac Space Reviver. This software is unlikely to benefit the system in any way, and will pass through undetected with a Mac certificate of approval.

Considering that security breaches are the number 1 cause of bitcoin theft, this news could be significant for some. If the malware were to gain access to a Bitcoinist’s system, they could be left helpless, unable to access their wallet, or end up with their funds stolen.

The insidious nature of the malware is its ability to elude detection, thus bitcoin using Mac fans need to exercise extreme caution and avoid downloading apps that are not available on the official App Store.

What do you think of this new malware infecting Mac users? Let us know in the comments below!

World Gold Coin has announced that it is available for trading on the C-CEX cryptocurrency exchange.

Disclaimer: This article was provided by Bitcoin PR Buzz. Bitcoinist is not affiliated with the firms represented by Bitcoin PR Buzz and is not responsible for their products and/or services.

At press time, WGC is trading at C-CEX for 0.00005 BTC. The currency’s developers expect the price to rise as more people invest in it through the exchange.

Marketed as a “Bitcoin 3.0” project, WGC has gained prominence in South East Asia since its launch.

The currency is mined with the X11 Proof of Work algorithm, which doesn’t allow ASIC mining and theoretically prevents some of the mining centralization experienced with Bitcoin. Mining difficulty for WGC is monitored by the Dark Gravity Well.

“[Dark Gravity Well] uses multiple exponential moving averages and a simple moving average to smoothly adjust the difficulty [of WGC],” says a World Gold Coin representative. “This implementation is far more simplistic and better suited to adjust difficulty than [Kimoto Gravity Well] and also fixes all known exploits.”

The supply cap for WGC is 8.88 billion coins, which is expected to be mined over a 10-year period with a block reward of 1689.49 WGC.

The World Gold Coin team has already made plans for the expansion of its project as WGC trading picks up on C-CEX. These plans include the deployment of WGC ATMs and cloud mining services.

About World Gold Coin

WGC Global is the creator of World Gold Coin. The Hong Kong-based company is a leading crypto-solutions provider in the market. WGC Global offers white labelled solutions to the cryptocurrency industry. Some of its solutions include blockchain based digital assets development, exchange platforms, cryptocurrency powered debit cards, customer cryptocurrency development and setup, APIs for customer digital assets, mobile apps and wallet services.

New data coming from eMarketer’s latest worldwide retail forecast shows that this year, China will manage to surpass the US and become the world’s largest retail market, with sales of over $4.886 trillion, compared to the average sum of $4.823 trillion in the US.

Due to Asia’s growing number of online shoppers, reports indicate that this year alone, the entire continent will spend a record $1 trillion, most of the sum coming from China. While the increasing popularity of ecommerce in other regions such as Southeast Asia and India have helped pushed the number upwards, China owns the largest percentage of the sum in question.

Asia’s Ecommerce to Hit $1 Trillion this Year Thanks to China

Not only this, but eMarketer pointed out that China will remain the world’s largest ecommerce market, with sales of over $900 billion this year, thus representing about half of the world’s digital retail sales online.

“Alibaba, Tmall and JD.com positioned themselves well to capitalize on growing consumer demand by creating their own payment systems (e.g., Alibaba’s Alipay) and logistical services (e.g., JD.com operates a self-owned logistics network) … In addition, with rising incomes and increased internet access in rural areas the cultural appetite to shop digitally will continue and we can expect to see further growth in mobile spend.”

Economic analysts believe that the value of the sales expected is likely to double by 2020, reaching roughly $2.725 trillion. EMarketer’s forecast also believes that the Asian region will see an incredibly quick ascension in terms of sales, as they’ll reportedly climb with over 31.5 percent this year alone.

These massive increases will help countries such as China, Indonesia and India grow, while also attracting more investors, alongside with fintech fans, interested in this developing trend. This is likely to happen considering the fact that mobile now accounts for over half of the ecommerce sales in China. New and improved payment systems — such as Bitcoin — may help this trend grow even more.

What are your thoughts on China eclipsing the US in retail sales? How about the development of ecommerce sales? Leave them in the comment section below!

There’s been no official statements as of yet – but it looks like the Mycelium Wallet will be getting built-in peer-to-peer bitcoin mixing/tumbling later this year. The first testnet transaction from devs went out four days ago, and discussion on internal channels confirms that they’re working on integrating P2P tumbling into their popular Android wallet.

P2P Tumbling In Mycelium Pipeline

As for details, so far we know they’re using the CoinShuffle protocol (whitepaper available here) and that it will be integrated into their growing number of peer-to-peer features, including local sales and messaging. It also shows a firm commitment to privacy and anonymity from a company previously criticised for their approach to open-source and free software.

Tumbling, for those new to Bitcoin, is a process used to obfuscate ownership of Bitcoin by pooling your coins with a group of other holders, and run them through a series of transactions designed to make determining their origin difficult. The biggest flaw with this system up to date was the reliance on a trusted third party to mix the coin, and return it to the participants in the proper amounts. By adding P2P tumbling to their already formidable decentralised network, Mycelium hopes to remove that flaw, and since they’re using a spec-faithful implementation of CoinShuffle, it means that the update with this change may prompt other mobile wallets to follow suit.

There’s been a lot of talk about the changes coming to Mycelium with the next major release – but this feature – one not advertised in their roadmap or goals, will likely have the biggest impact on mobile Bitcoin users – the ones that benefit most from this type of secure tumbling. More to come as we investigate the issue further.